2.3 | Notorious ✓

03 | surreptitious

"Okay."

I hadn't meant for myself to sound as vulnerable as I did then, or for Callum to sense it. But he did, and I felt him shift closer to me. His thigh was flush against mine, his shoulder nudging into mine. Light tingles fluttered through my nerves, setting the ends alight on fire, but I could hardly bring myself to shift away from him.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, his breath a light caress against my cheek and I felt an involuntary shiver. "It's just - difficult. It's too hard for me to even begin to explain why I'm the way I am."

I was beginning to get a clearly sense of things, and it finally dawned on me how much left out of the loop I was. Jason couldn't explain to me his thirst for revenge, and Callum couldn't explain to me why he felt the sick urge to continue bullying people.

But I myself was in a precarious situation. I was sitting on the wall - both literally and metaphorically - in which I could hardly bring myself to pick a side in this stupid, stupid war. Perhaps I too was playing with fire. Little did I know, then, that I too was bound to get burnt.

"What's wrong?" Callum nudged me, his eyes dark as he stared intently, searchingly at me.

I shrugged. "It's nothing, it's just - " I turned to meet his eyes, aware that mine were rimming with confusion, my mouth twisted into a troubled frown, " - is it wrong for me to not side with my friends? I feel absolutely horrid for not helping Jason, I mean he is my best friend and we've stuck together for ages now but I can't even bring myself to be the slightest bit enthusiastic about Hell Week, and I'm just - "

"Scout," he stopped me, harshly. I noticed his hand reach out, almost skimming my skin, his fingers twitching as though he was debating whether to wrap them around my wrist. He seemed to decide against it, and retracted his hand abruptly. "You're not doing anything wrong. We're the screw-ups, we're the ones who've fucked things up."

He seemed almost angry when he said that, and I glanced up at him curiously. His jaw was clenched, eyes distant.

"Don't let us change you," he continued, softly. "You're perfect the way you are."

I was treading dangerous waters. Not only was I testing the game rules of Hell Week by absolutely betraying Jason and hanging out with Callum, I was testing the capabilities of my heart. It didn't help that his words made me flush, made me feel like a complete girl.

"How's your cousin, by the way?" he asked, after a moment's pause.

His abrupt change in the conversation confused me for a moment. I blinked, before gushing, "She's fine. She's in her eighth month of pregnancy, her stomach's ginormous. Can you believe it? I'm going to be an aunt in less than a month!"

Breaking out of my little reverie, I turned to Callum, belatedly realising that he was already watching me intently the whole time. I blushed, and he hastily looked away.

"I can't believe you remembered my cousin looks after me," I continued, softly, "It's been, what, four years now? Your memory's pretty good."

"Not really," He mumbled, "Some things you just don't forget easily."

But I had no time to ponder over what he meant then. Because a sudden blast of water hit us out of nowhere, so forceful I almost fell off the wall in fright.

"That's one," I heard a smug, familiar voice say, from somewhere behind us.

Another blast of water hit us, this time from my side. And I saw it coming, a huge splash from five distinct red pails, right at me. Except the water didn't quite hit me. Instead, I felt a pair of strong arms wind themselves round my waist, before spinning me quickly so that the force of water hit him instead of me.